WTHR |Sites help organize personal medical records

Sites help organize personal medical records

Anne Marie Tiernon/Eyewitness News

How organized are you when it comes to your health? The Markle Foundation reports that only 42 percent of Americans keep some form of personal health record. But usually the information is related to medical billing. Now there is a statewide initiative to help Hoosiers, headed up by an instructor at the IUPUI School of Informatics. The hope is that better data leads to better diagnosis and outcomes.

The more doctors you visit, the greater the need for a personal health record.

"They all have their own little picture but nobody has the complete picture of you - so little pieces of a puzzle or chapter in a book but nobody has the complete book on you," said Ruth Walker, IUPUI Health Information Admin program instructor.

But you can write that book with the help of online programs. Some have a fee. Others are free, like myphr.com.

"It's just a habit; something you get in a habit with doing," said Cindy Johnson, Centerville.

It's Cindy Johnson's solution. She is part of the so-called sandwich generation. She organizes medicals records for herself, her children, her mother and mother-in-law.

"It's hard for her to keep track. She's got 13 different pills and plus she has inhalers and all that information is there. And say for example, I don't take her to the doctor; her daughter takes her next time. Then all that information is right there and things don't get mixed up and everything is together," she said.

For children, immunizations dates matter now and much later when entering the military or a health care profession.

Hurricane Katrina was just one disaster that highlighted problems when medical records are lost and transplanted patients move on to doctors unaware of medical history.

But stored records with password protection could be accessed anywhere, eliminating duplication of tests and uncertainty at the doctor's office.

"My mother-in-law's doctor has been very positive because it saves him time because he schedules patients every 15, 20 minutes and it saves him time," said Johnson.

Johnson says it took her 30 minutes to create the first record, but now just minutes to update. For her, it's worth the effort in hopes of a better diagnosis and outcome for everyone she cares for.

See also: ihealthrecord.com